Vision and Quick Victories

Personally, short term goals always seem more achievable than the ultimate one. They are like the small baby crawling-steps that we all take before being able to walk. In Shackleton's case, there were many short term goals that he set up before his expedition that led to his ultimate goal. I believe that as important as it was for him to be able to cross Antarctica, bringing back all of his crew members safely was his ultimate goal. He may not have been able to achieve one of his goals on this expedition, but the fact that no on died on this brutal trip truly surprised me. Creating new short term goals for the crew and keeping everyone active was essential to their survival, but I also think that Shackleton's activeness kept the crew going as well. From the reading, he did not seem like the type of leader who bossed his followers around and did not really do any of the work. Instead, he worked as hard as his men and kept everyone on board on their feet, allowing time to pass by a lot faster. I think that seeing their own leader physically working, and also diligently, makes the followers look up to their leader.

Kristi, Yusuke, and I each shared a story about when we had to set a new goal during the process of reaching the original one. After listening to everyone's experiences, I felt that even though we all have an ultimate goal that we want to reach, we actually set up short-term goals without really realizing it. When I was on the cheer team at my high school, I had surgery on a bone in my foot and was not able to try out for the competition squad that year. My goal at that time was to be able to go to the Yoyogi Gymnasium with the entire team and be able to perform at our best. I was not able to exercise for several months after my surgery and thought my goal was not achievable anymore. However, my best friend and captain of the cheer team, encouraged me to stay strong which allowed me to set a new goal, which was to support the team as best as I could. I tried hard to be a manager-like existence to the team. In the end, everyone on the team was able to go to the competition sight as one team. Looking back at this experience now that we are learning about leadership, my leader (the captain of the cheer team) was always encouraging and set up short-term goals for me and my teammates, just like Shackleton did for his crew. I am so blessed to have met such a great leader who is always active and supportive of what her teammates set their minds to.